AWS re:Invent 2025: Your guide to security sessions across four transformative themes

AWS re:Invent 2025, the premier cloud computing conference hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS), returns to Las Vegas, Nevada, December 1–5, 2025. At AWS, security is our top priority, and re:Invent 2025 reflects this commitment with our most comprehensive security track to date. With more than 80 security aligned sessions spanning breakouts, workshops, chalk talks, and hands-on builders’ sessions, we’re bringing together the brightest minds to share insights, best practices, and innovative solutions. For security professionals, developers, and cloud architects, the event offers valuable insights into the latest security innovations at AWS, advanced threat protection capabilities, and defense strategies that scale. While attending re:Invent, you can visit the Security kiosk and AI Security kiosk at the expo hall to engage directly with AWS security experts about your specific needs.

The security track session selection process was driven by our extensive analysis of customer needs and real-world implementation challenges. We specifically focused on security areas where customers seek the most guidance and coalesced the sessions around four major themes: Securing and Leveraging AI, Architecting Security and Identity at scale, Building and scaling a Culture of Security, and Innovations in AWS Security. Our goal with the sessions is to address immediate security challenges and help you achieve broader business outcomes. In the following sections, we highlight a few key sessions in each of the four themes. You can visit the re:Invent catalog for a view of all sessions.

Securing and leveraging AI

Securing and using AI emerges as a dominant theme for the Security and Identity track, reflecting both the opportunities and challenges AI presents. From protecting AI workloads to harnessing AI for enhanced security operations, sessions span multiple AI topics to help organizations navigate this transformative technology safely and effectively. Here are a few key sessions on each of the AI topics.

Securing AI workloads

• Breakout SEC410 – Advanced AI Security: Architecting Defense-in-Depth for AI Workloads: Dive deep into advanced security architectures for AI workloads, exploring how to protect your workload against sophisticated attack vectors. Through technical examples, we’ll implement secure architectures for AI workloads, covering identity, fine-grained access policies, and secure foundation model deployment patterns. Learn how to harden generative and agentic AI applications using AWS security capabilities, implementing least-privilege controls, and building secure architectures at scale.
• Workshop SEC406 – Red teaming your generative AI and MCP applications at scale: Step into the shoes of an AI-powered red team adversary in the GenAI Red Team Challenge. In this intensive workshop, you’ll deploy an AI security agent to orchestrate sophisticated threat chains against Model Context Protocol (MCP) applications, systematically discovering vulnerabilities. Master countermeasures from prompt templating and guardrails to OAuth-enhanced MCP security configurations that prevent unauthorized access. This hands-on, gamified experience helps you think like a threat actor and equips you with practical skills in automated vulnerability testing and risk mitigation against common MITRE and OWASP vulnerabilities for LLM-based applications. You must bring your laptop to participate.

Security for Agentic AI

• ChalkTalk SEC408 – Securing Agentic AI: OWASP, MAESTRO, and Real-World Defense Strategies: Explore the latest in Agentic AI security with OWASP’s updated Threats and Mitigations Guide and Agentic Security Initiative. We will also explore MAESTRO, a specialized threat modeling approach for AI systems, offering a layered methodology to identify and mitigate risks throughout the AI lifecycle. Through a real-world case study, we’ll demonstrate security best practices for agentic AI, including robust governance, continuous monitoring, and least-privilege access. Learn how to confidently deploy autonomous AI agents while minimizing risks. Gain practical insights for building secure, trustworthy, and resilient agentic AI applications that can transform industries safely.
• Workshop SEC307 – Design authentication, authorization, and logging logic in Agentic AI apps: This hands-on workshop addresses the critical challenge of managing identities and permissions for generative AI agents. Learn to implement user and machine authentication, along with fine-grained authorization mechanisms, tailored for AI agents, tools, and LLMs. Explore consent management and permission delegation in AI contexts. Participants will gain practical experience using AWS’s latest services, including Strands SDK, Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Identity, Amazon Cognito for identity management, and Amazon Verified Permissions for authorization decisions. By the end, you’ll have the skills to enhance security and compliance in your AI operations using AWS’s cutting-edge identity and access management solutions.

Using AI for security

• Builders SEC318 – Strengthen your network security with generative AI: Transform how you manage network security using the power of generative AI. See how Amazon Q Developer helps you explore AWS Shield Network Security Director findings through natural language conversations. Learn to quickly identify misconfigured resources, understand security issues, and implement guided fixes across your AWS environment.
• Chalktalk SEC304 – Building an AI-Powered security guardian for your Cognito applications: Elevate your application security with an intelligent AI-Powered security guardian to protect your Amazon Cognito-authenticated applications. In this interactive session, we’ll explore identity best practices and building an AI agent using Amazon Bedrock AgentCore to help verify best practices, perform detective analysis, and take automated preventative actions to mitigate risks. We’ll talk through how an AI agent can perform dynamic WAF rule adjustments, modify authentication flows, and perform security operations center (SOC) actions. Bring your questions and scenarios as we deep dive into how to implement AI-driven security controls for your Cognito protected applications.

Building and Scaling Culture of Security

This theme is woven throughout the re:Invent 2025 security track, reflecting the belief that technological solutions alone cannot ensure robust security outcomes. Enterprises with a Culture of Security become security-first organizations, after which they can accelerate secure digital transformations. Some of the sessions that showcase this theme are:

• Breakout SEC319 – Climbing the AI Mountain With Your Security Team: Navigate the intersection of AI and security culture in this practical session. Learn how security teams can effectively embrace AI innovation through incremental steps and validation techniques. Using real-world examples, we’ll demonstrate how security practitioners can adapt their skills to AI challenges regardless of their level of specialized expertise and share strategies for building security-aware AI practices. From understanding generative and agentic AI-specific security risks to creating engaging team exercises, discover how to transform security from a potential bottleneck into an enabler of responsible AI innovation. Attendees will leave with actionable insights for building a security-first approach to AI adoption.
• Chalktalk SEC343 – Fostering a Resilient Incident Response Culture: Discover how to combine human expertise with intelligent automation in security incident response. Learn how AWS Security Incident Response, auto-triaging capabilities, and generative AI work together to augment—not replace—your team’s decision-making. We’ll explore how integrating AWS Security Incident Response and generative AI into your workflows can reduce alert fatigue, accelerate accurate incident classification, and enable responders to focus on critical analysis. See how leading organizations balance automation with human oversight, creating more efficient and resilient incident response processes while maintaining the crucial elements of human judgment and institutional knowledge. Uncover practical strategies for integrating AI-driven insights with human expertise in your incident response culture.
• Chalktalk SEC227 – Translating Security Metrics into Business Outcomes: Today CISOs face the challenge of translating complex security data into business value. This session reveals proven frameworks for transforming security metrics into strategic insights that drive boardroom decisions. Learn how leading organizations leverage AWS Security Hub, OpenSearch and Security Analytics and automation to build real-time risk dashboards that demonstrate security’s business impact. Walk away with practical strategies for evolving your security program from operational metrics to business outcomes, enabling data-driven investment decisions and measurable risk reduction that resonates with executives.

Architecting Security and Identity at scale

This theme explores how you can use the comprehensive toolset and proven patterns provided by AWS to implement enterprise-grade security controls that scale from individual workloads to global organizations. Some key sessions on this theme include:

• ChalkTalk SEC333 – From Static to Dynamic: Modernizing AWS Access Management: Building a robust AWS identity foundation requires moving beyond static credentials. This session deep dives into proven patterns for implementing dynamic, temporary access across your AWS organization. We’ll explore real-world challenges of access key dependencies and share practical approaches to transition towards ephemeral credentials using IAM roles and SAML federation. Through practical examples and lessons learned, discover how to implement secure authentication patterns that scale while reducing operational overhead. Walk away with actionable strategies to strengthen your identity perimeter and modernize your access management approach.
• Workshop SEC401 – Active defense strategies using AWS Al/ML services: This workshop will help you learn how to develop and deploy active defense strategies, such as deception, using Amazon Bedrock and Amazon SageMaker. Gain hands-on experience developing AI-driven responses for security operations. You will learn how to develop adaptive responses that mimic what an actor may be trying use against you. Discover implementation patterns for prompt engineering, deployment strategies, and monitoring methodologies. You must bring your laptop to participate.
• Workshop SEC303 – Advanced AWS Network Security: Building Scalable Production Defenses: In this hands-on workshop, master AWS network security techniques to defend against today’s most critical threats. Learn to implement layer 7 capabilities and deep packet inspection using AWS Network Firewall and Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall, securing both internet-bound and internal traffic flows. Gain practical experience in configuring scalable, reliable filtering to combat zero-day attacks and ransomware, while also implementing sophisticated east-west traffic controls to prevent lateral movement. Through real-world scenarios, you’ll learn to leverage IDS/IPS filtering, domain-based controls, and principle of least privilege using fully managed AWS services. Leave equipped to build resilient network defenses against modern cyber threats.

Innovations in AWS Security

AWS innovation in security capabilities is designed to help organizations outpace evolving threats. From advanced threat detection powered by machine learning to revolutionary data protection mechanisms, these innovations demonstrate the AWS commitment to keeping customers secure in an evolving landscape. Some of the innovation-focused sessions are:

• Breakout SEC203 – State of the Art: AWS data protection in 2025 (ft. Vanguard): Join AWS Cryptography leaders for a comprehensive tour of 2025’s groundbreaking security innovations. Discover the latest launches across Cloudfront, KMS, Private CA, and Secrets Manager, showcasing AWS’s implementation of NIST-standardized post quantum cryptography. Learn how we’re revolutionizing cloud security through quantum-resistant algorithms, advanced certificate management, and automated secrets handling. Get an inside look at Vanguards enterprise-wide PQC migration and how they made it a strategic business priority. See firsthand how AWS continues raising the bar on data protection for your most sensitive workloads.
• Breakout SEC323 – AWS detection and response innovations that drive security outcomes: Discover how the latest AWS detection and response capabilities can help secure your cloud environment more effectively. Learn practical ways to achieve integrated security outcomes through enhanced threat detection, automated vulnerability management, and streamlined response—all at scale. We’ll show you how to use AWS security services to protect workloads and data, centralize security monitoring, manage security posture continuously, and unify security data, while leveraging generative AI for security operations. Walk away with actionable insights for integrating AWS detection and response services to strengthen and simplify security across your AWS environment.
• Breakout SEC310 – Innovations in Infrastructure Protection to strengthen your network: In this session, learn about new capabilities in infrastructure protection services like AWS Network Firewall, Amazon Route 53 DNS Firewall, AWS WAF, and AWS Shield, to simplify your application protection, streamline robust egress protections and gain insight into your network. Dive deep into how new visibility investments can give insight into misconfigurations, possible threats, and proactive identification of network configuration issues.

Conclusion

Don’t miss this opportunity to enhance your cloud security knowledge and connect with AWS security experts and industry peers. For a full view of the Security and Identity sessions, explore the AWS re:invent catalog where you can filter sessions by topic, areas of interest, role, and so on.

When you register, you’ll gain access to the session reservation system where you can reserve your seats. Popular security sessions, especially hands-on sessions, fill up quickly because of limited capacity, so we recommend reserving your preferred sessions as soon as scheduling opens. See you are re:Invent!

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